This is the Golden Age of comic-book blockbusters. Since his introduction in August 1962, Spider-Man's pop culture reach has extended from comic books and clothing to video games, toys, and television shows. His strongest impact, however, is in the feature-film realm, where eight different Spider-Man movies collectively boast more than $7.2 billion in worldwide tickets sold. If Hollywood had a superhero throne, Spider-Man would be sitting on it. Of the five highest-grossing film franchises in Hollywood history, Spider-Man now plays a pivotal role in three: the Marvel Cinematic Universe; the four-film Avengers franchise; and the Spider-Man series. This ranks the character ahead of James Bond, the Transformers, every on-screen Batman, and Peter Jackson's complete Tolkien series in Hollywood's box-office hierarchy. Marvel's wall-crawler has come a long way since his earliest days, but his cinematic journey has yet to be documented. Unusual, since Spider-Man's Hollywood history is littered with A-list names (such as James Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio), behind-the-scenes squabbles, franchise reboots, and Tom Holland preventing Disney from booting Spidey out of the MCU. The prized creation of Marvel guru Stan Lee has helped create and cultivate the current Golden Age of comic-book blockbusters, and lessons learned on the Spider-Man franchises are applied to all comic-book movies today. Veteran film reporter and author Sean O'Connell uses his exclusive access to directors, actors, producers, and screenwriters to get the inside angles on Spider-Man's climb to the top of the superhero heap in With Great Power.
Sean O'Connell is the managing director of CinemaBlend, a globally recognized and industry-respected entertainment news website. He has been covering the film industry since 1999, and his byline has appeared in USA Today, The Washington Post, and Fandango. Sean grew up on Marvel Comics and is a Spider-Man aficionado who covered all eight Spider-Man films during every phase of production. Since 2016, Sean has been able to file reports from the international film sets of both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far from Home.
Clones? Alternate timelines? Parallel realities? The behind-the-scenes history of the Spider-Man movies has them all beat for head-spinning complexity, and Sean O'Connell arrives just in time to untangle that web.--Douglas Wolk, author, All of the Marvels Stan Lee once claimed Spider-Man was more than a superhero, but a state of mind. Read Sean O'Connell's With Great Power and you'll understand how this lovable teen conquered comic books and Hollywood! O'Connell spins a web that readers will find hard to put down. Excelsior!--Bob Batchelor, author, Stan Lee: A Life and Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel, Young Reader Edition The love for the Spider-Man character, in all of his various media, is apparent from the very first page. Sean O'Connell has certainly put forth an immense effort in exploring and revealing every nook and cranny of the web that was woven to bring this unassuming geek from Queens into the hearts and minds of everyone in the world. Shockingly, I've learned things about Spider-Man and how he came to be that I never knew, and that has only deepened my love for the character and this genre of entertainment. This book has certainly made me want to dig into anything and everything Spider-Man, and I'm a Thor fanboy!--Jeff Randle, co-host: Marvel Cinematic Universe Podcast, co-creator: Stranded Panda Podcast Network "Sean O'Connell does Spider-Man, superhero films, and movie fans a major service by leaving no stone unturned in this incredibly detailed, thoroughly researched, and well-written book on the history of the Web-Slinger that focuses on how Spidey tangled Hollywood and generations of movie audiences everywhere in his web. The stories encompassing the Spider-Man flicks in the book told by cast members, including the icons who portrayed Peter Parker, as well as crew members, from directors to costume designers who took the creation of the legendary attire to heart, are remarkably candid and insightful. From the Spider-Man projects that didn't swing to arguably the greatest film achievement in history, Sean helps the reader understand how it all unfolded. There will never be another Spider-Man book like With Great Power."--Scott King, Forbes.com A hugely entertaining and informative chronicle of the big screen history of everyone's favorite web crawler from Queens. This is a Spider-Man book by a fan for fans!--Josh Horowitz, MTV/Comedy Central
